20kWEB: Origin of the word Dainty. Etymology of the word Dainty. Etymology Dictionary.

DAINTY, a delicacy; pleasant to the taste. (F.,—L.) M. E. deinté, deintee, generally as a sb.; Ancren Riwle, p. 412. But Chaucer has: 'Ful many a deyntè hors hadde he in stable;' C. T. prol. 168. This adjectival use is, however, a secondary one, and arose out of such phrases as 'to leten deinté' = to consider as pleasant (Ancren Riwle, p. 412), and 'to thinken deyntee,' with the same sense (P. Plowman, B. xi. 47).—O. F. daintie (to be accented daintié), agreeableness. 'Sentirent la flairor des herbes par daintie' = they enjoyed the fragrance of the herbs in an agreeable way; Roman d'Alixandre, in Bartsch's Chrestomathie Française, col. 177, l. 4.—Lat. acc. dignitatem, dignity, worth, whence also the more learned O. F. form digniteit.—Lat. dignus, worthy. See Dignity. ¶ Cotgrave gives the remarkable adj. dain, explained by 'dainty, fine, quaint, curious (an old word);' this is precisely the popular F. form of Lat. dignus, the more learned form being digne. Der. dainti-ly, dainti-ness. [†]

ADDENDA

The etymology is confirmed by the use of M.E. deynous in the sense of O.F. desdaigneux, disdainful, which see in Cotgrave; and of M.E. digne in just the same sense; see Catholicon Anglicum, p. 95, note 4. Observe that the word dis-dain gives precisely the same formation of -dain from Lat. dignus.

Etymology Dictionary

Origin of the word DAINTY. Etymology of the word DAINTY.